From bad to worse.
The Pew Research Center’s 2013 report on the State of the News Media brings more sad tidings: a decade of newsroom cuts is being felt. But what did anyone expect? Nearly one-in-three Americans say they have stopped turning to a particular news outlet because it no longer provides the news they were accustomed to getting. Diminished newsroom staffing is having a noticeable effect. Moreover, politicians and corporate entities are better able to bypass traditional media and speak directly to the public, meaning no journalistic filter is in place. Content determined by algorithm, curtailed news coverage on cable, more layoffs (at Time magazine for instance) and continued economic struggles add to the bleak picture for journalism.

The effect on local TV news is profound: “In local TV, sports, weather and traffic now account on average for 40% of the content produced on the newscasts studied while story lengths shrink.” Local TV audiences were down across every key time slot and across all networks in 2012. And items like weather, sports scores and traffic are ripe for picking off by new mobile apps.

For newspapers, the debate over pay walls may be ending with an answer in the affirmative: 450 of the nation’s 1,380 dailies have started or announced plans for some kind of paid content subscription or pay wall plan. With digital advertising growing at an anemic pace, “digital subscriptions are seen as an increasingly vital component of any new business model for journalism,” even though the digital dimes are not replacing the lost print dollars.

It’s not just bleak, it’s scary. Not only are news outlets cutting staff, losing revenue and predicting more declines in the coming year, but they have no idea how to fix what’s broken. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual state of the news media report, released this morning, one thing is clear: The answer does not lie in online advertising.

Some 79% of consumers say they have never clicked on an online ad.

Most news operations are becoming niche operations. Where there used to be aggressive newsgathering there is now opining. Where formal journalism used to take place there are now interested parties blogging.

Old-school journalists don’t know whether to collaborate with “citizen journalists” or warn against them. And the forecast is for more cuts in 2010 even as the economy improves.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.